Strengths as Superpowers - Replay (CAL123, S6 E17)

Geri: 00:00:05

Welcome to Changing Academic Life.

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I'm Geraldine Fitzpatrick, and this is

a podcast series where academics and

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others share their stories, provide

ideas, and provoke discussions about what

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we can do individually and collectively

to change academic life for the better.

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I have a wonderful conversation already

recorded, and I had hoped to get it out

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to you last week, but I've been traveling

both for holidays and at a conference and

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haven't had time to finish processing it.

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What I'm going to do though is

replay a past episode where we talked

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about strengths and how we can talk

about strengths as our superpowers.

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Strengths being something that

we are not just good at, but

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that we really love doing.

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And I've chosen this as a replay

because my guest that will be coming

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up next talks about them using the

language of natural talents, and whether

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you call them strengths or natural

talents, they're really important

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to understand and become aware of.

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Because of how we can use that

awareness to shape our work and our

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choices, to enable us to really be

at our best and to make our best

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contributions, and also to recognize

when we may overuse our strengths a

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bit and how they may work against us.

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Before I start that replay though, I

just wanted to give you a quick update.

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If you remember the discussions with

Graham McAllister in recent episodes.

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He talked about the significant impact

that the late Gary Marsden had on him

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and his regret at never actually being

able to tell Gary himself about that.

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After those episodes went out, I

reached out to someone who knew Gary

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Marsden's family, and I asked if he

would share the episodes with them.

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The feedback from them

was really touching.

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Gary's wife said, and to quote.

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Thanks so much for sending this.

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How wonderful.

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It means so much end quote.

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And that so much was in capital letters

with three exclamation marks afterwards.

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Gary's son also reached out to

Graham directly and said to quote,

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there's no way to tell Gary the many

things we wish we could tell him.

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Knowing him, I doubt he would've

been comfortable accepting that

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he had a big impact, but hearing

your stories keeps him alive.

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For me, my sister and my mother.

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Thank you for keeping him

alive for everyone, even if

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it seems like a simple story.

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So that just reinforces the

importance of . Reaching out to

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people and letting them know.

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And I can also share my own

experience of that last week.

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While I was at the conference, quite a

few people came up to me and just said

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about how much the podcast meant to them

and made some quite specific comments

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about the ways in which it mattered.

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I.

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And I'd love to share one . Feedback

on that, which was handwritten on a

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beautiful hand painted postcard and

where the person had gone to quite

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significant effort to try to seek me

out at the conference to let me know.

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And to quote from that postcard.

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Thank you for inspiring a

culture that values everyone

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being their own unique selves.

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Forging new stories, journeys.

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Every once in a while when I feel

lost, not knowing what next Changing

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academic life offers that Ray of

Hope reminding me that work just like

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life is serendipitous in many ways.

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End quote.

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And that feedback really touched

me and made the work so worthwhile.

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All of this reinforces the message that

we are trying to get out in the discussion

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with Graham, that if there is someone

who's had an impact on your life, reach

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out to them and just let them know.

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It can mean a lot.

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So now to get to the replay about

our strengths as our superpowers.

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Or as my next guest will talk

about them as our natural talents.

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Enjoy.

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So where do you naturally

choose to spend your time?

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When you have the option of

making a choice, what do you

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naturally gravitate to doing?

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Where's your happy place or places

as an academic, what is it that

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you really love doing when you feel

the most alive and in the flow?

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Maybe I.

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I wanted to muse on this today

triggered by two different, but I think

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related interactions from last week.

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One was a discussion, uh, with a senior

professor whose colleague made a comment

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to, to them that they should be writing

more and notice the should, but for

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this senior academic they would always

choose, they said to spend time with

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their students, not sitting down writing

another paper yet, even though they were

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really clear on this as their own choice,

they, they felt that, um, they still

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felt somehow that they weren't measuring

up to what an academic should be.

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Again, the should.

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The other example was a Twitter

discussion, responding to the conversation

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with Aaron Quigley, where he talked

about his superpowers of not worrying who

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gets the credit, listening and talking.

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And Lewis Chuang started a Twitter

conversation around superpowers.

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And interestingly also asked

Aaron, what's his kryptonite?

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I love this nod to the Superman comics.

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So if you remember, kryptonite

is Superman's Achilles heel.

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It made him weak and all sorts

of different types of kryptonite

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emerged over the series having

different effects on Superman.

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And then in some, some of the episodes,

he could become immune or found out

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he could be immune from kryptonite

by traveling to alternate dimensions.

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I think a generic kryptonite for many

of us as academics is thinking that

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there must be some ideal super academic

that we all should be aspiring to.

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And this isn't helped by the hyper

competitive culture and the generic

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metrics that we all have to report to.

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And I would suggest that we can get

some immunity from this kryptonite by

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traveling to the alternate dimension of

knowing ourselves better and identifying

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what are our unique superpowers.

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Looking to where we get our energy

from in doing our academic work.

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And also knowing what's our kryptonite.

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It's more specifically, and having mid

mitigation strategies against this.

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I really strongly believe and promote

that there's no ideal academic

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that we should all be aspiring to.

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We're all unique and we need

the diverse mix of us all to

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deliver good science overall.

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So what are your superpowers?

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The questions I started with can be

one way to start to reflect on this.

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So for example, when you do have the

option of making a choice of how you spend

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your time or the opportunity to volunteer

to something, what sort of things

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do you naturally gravitate to doing?

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Where's your happy place?

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What is it that you really love

doing that makes you feel alive and

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where you really get in the flow?

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I.

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If I think of people I've worked with

over the years, I know that there's

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one person I'll always find in the

maker lab if they have free time

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because this is what lights them up.

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Another person I know will be there

behind their closed door, sitting at their

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desk and reveling in the time to write.

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And for me, I know that I will

always prioritize time for people and

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mentoring over writing or tinkering.

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None of us are better or worse

academics than the other.

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We're just different, and we bring

different superpowers to our work.

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So I can also give another

illustration too that just might

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help make this more concrete.

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So all of us work who are

working in universities might be

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required to do some lecturing.

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And so on the surface, by role

title and by task, it might look

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like that is all pretty much the

same, the same job of lecturing.

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But if you actually ask around to the

people that you know and ask them what is

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it about lecturing that they really like?

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If they, if they like it.

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And I'm sure that you will

get a whole range of answers.

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So some of the answers that I've heard

to this question, you know, some people

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love the, the aspect of actually standing

up in front of the class and performing

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in a way and engaging this class.

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Other people will talk about , it's

really the, the interaction with the

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students and facilitating learning

conversations For others, it's about

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breaking down complex ideas into teachable

chunks and how to communicate that.

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For others, it's the creative work

of developing learning materials,

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innovative learning materials.

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Or it might be the strategic

planning of the whole learning

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journey for the student.

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And that sort of, that strategic

thinking is what really,

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um, you know, drives people.

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Or it might be that you are

just motivated by inspiring

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the next generation of leaders.

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I'm sure you can come up with other

reasons and it'd be interesting

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to know what are your reasons.

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For anything we do, I would suggest

even in delivering to the metrics, the

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things that we have to do, we can still

ask ourselves though, what are the parts

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of this that we might actually love?

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And then look at how we can do more

of that in delivering to what we have

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to do, because that's where our energy

lies, and that's where we get to use

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our strengths and our superpowers.

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So in delivering to the metrics, it

may be really annoying and painful,

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but maybe I can also take the time

to celebrate for myself what it is

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that I've learned over the time.

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If love of learning is a, is a

strength for you, just as an example.

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So there's really strong evidence across

a lot of diverse literature in different

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countries, cultures, and with different

settings from students to businesses

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to, um, everyday life that points to

really strong benefits of knowing and

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using and developing your strengths.

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And the literature talks about

things like, you know, people

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who use their strengths more are

happier, experience less stress, feel

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healthier, have more energy, feel

more satisfied and more confident.

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Um, they're more creative and agile at

work and they experience more meaning

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at work and are more engaged as well.

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S So recognizing that we all have

different superpowers also reminds

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us that we don't have to be good or

excellent at everything, and that's

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completely okay, and that we all bring

very different interests and superpowers

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to our work, and that's the great value

of working in collaboration with others.

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I had a conversation for the podcast

with Mike Twidale some time ago, and

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he gave us a great example of how

we can put our different superpowers

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together to compliment one another.

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Just take a listen to this extract.

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I.

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I realized that, you know, one aspect

of delegation that I could do was

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delegate things to people who were

really good at doing this thing

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that I was really bad at doing.

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And that's partly recognizing

strengths and weaknesses in ourselves.

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And it, it was a struggle 'cause at

times I'm inclined to be very egocentric

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and think, well, if I hate doing it,

surely everybody else hates doing it too.

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So I am now going to ask them

to do this horrible thing.

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And then discovering this thing I think

is horrible is something they think

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is really nice and this that something

they think is horrible, I think is fun.

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So learning what it is that you know,

plays to other people's strengths.

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And there may be something that

everybody hates and that has to

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be dealt, but often there are

these sort of different strengths

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and skills that can be played to.

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So isn't that a great example?

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So it's also worth knowing that it's

not enough just to name our superpowers

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and assume that they're always fantastic

to use, or that we don't need to

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develop other skills if we need to.

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So two examples or caveats around

the whole notion of superpowers.

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One is.

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Not having some superpower doesn't

mean that we can't do something

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at all or that we couldn't learn.

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It just means that it doesn't come so

naturally to us and we'll have to put

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in more explicit effort to develop that.

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Programming, um, is an example for me.

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So I, I could learn how to do programming

and even be good at it, but I really

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had to draw on my superpower of

conscientiousness and persistence to

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put in the hard work to get through it

and to enjoy the sense of achievement

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at the end, even if I didn't enjoy the

process and it, it took explicit effort.

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I am also not so great at the bigger

picture, strategic thinking, and

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I could go on courses for this.

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And luckily, so far, like Mike's ex

example, I've been able to work with other

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people who are better at this and to,

uh, compliment our strengths together.

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The second caveat is that sometimes

our strengths or our superpowers

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can also be hidden kryptonite

for us if we overuse them.

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Or underuse them or use them unskillfully

or inappropriately in a specific context.

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So one of my superpowers is being really

curious and, and love, just love to learn.

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And what that means is I have really

eclectic interests and, you know, uh,

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have broad, uh, broad feel of lots of

what's going on in different areas.

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But the downside that I have to

watch out for is because I can be

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interested in all sorts of things.

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I'm really prone to going down rabbit

holes, and so I need to work much harder

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on staying in focus if there's something

I need to do and watching out for myself,

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going down a rabbit hole and wasting time.

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Another example is I think one of my

superpowers might be fairness, and that

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leads me to behave in particular ways

around people and with people you know,

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to, to see that things are just and fair.

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I.

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But it can also not serve me well

when I notice unfairness or injustice

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somewhere else, or feel like someone's

treated me unfairly and I can really

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end up ruminating and being very upset

and having sleepless nights around that.

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So I need to have strategies

for trying to manage that.

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So just having a superpower

doesn't mean that that's brilliant.

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You know, there, there are, you

know, there's lots of nuances around

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actually understanding and using

your superpowers to best advantage.

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So in summary, I.

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We all have our own particular superpowers

and our own particular kryptonite.

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And what I think is interesting in

all of the podcast conversations

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that I have, I how much we hear

this in different people's stories.

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Everyone has a different, a different

career path, different motivations

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for their choices, uh, different

sorts of things that really drive

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them and that they get excited about.

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And it's just a great reminder that

there's no such thing as the ideal

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academic or the good academic life.

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It's what's a good academic life to you.

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And this connects to

our related work today.

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As I said, there's a huge body of evidence

in the psychology and, and in the, you

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know, organizational business literature

about the power of using superpowers more.

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So I'm going to link to two popular

science articles that provide a broad

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overview or summary or discussion

of strengths, and also links to the

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underlying peer reviewed papers.

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And, uh, I said that some of the ways that

you can investigate your own superpowers

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is to just think about, um, the questions

that I ask, but you could also ask others.

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'cause often if we think something

comes so naturally to us, uh, we,

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we just take it for granted and

assume everyone can do that because

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it's just so effortless for us.

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So sometimes it needs other, we need

other people to reflect it back.

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And so there's a link in, in one of those

articles to an exercise called Reflected

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Best Self, where it helps you, it talks

about how you can go and talk to other

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people about helping you identify your

strengths and the articles also point to

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some online profile profiling, uh, tools

that you may like to use as tools to

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think with that might start to point you.

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I will also link to a third article by

Ryan Niemiec, six ways your strengths

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will help you turn to your best qualities

for prevention, safety, and health.

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And that's the end of the replay.

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I'm going to add two additional

links to the webpage and there'll

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be the two different strengths

assessments that you might be

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interested in taking for yourself.

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You can also find many other

strengths assessment tools if

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you wanna do a search for them.

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Um, the first one I'll point to is called

the via VIA Character Strength Survey.

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It is free to take and it has a

significant research base behind it.

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As its name implies.

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It focuses particularly

on character strengths.

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The second strengths assessment

tools I'm going to point to

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are from strength scope.com.

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And for this one, you'll need to pay

and you need to access it through a

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certified strength scope coach who

also goes through the debrief with you.

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And for full disclosure, I

am a certified Strengthscope

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coach if you were interested.

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There are different versions of

the tool of strength scopes tools.

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Uh, you can use it as an individual.

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You can also do a strength scope team

assessment that enables you to identify

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the strengths across the team and

how you might make best use of those.

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And there's a strength scope leader

survey that particularly focuses as

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the name says, on the strengths that

leaders need to bring to their work.

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And there's an extension to the

leaders and the individual surveys

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that can include a 360 component.

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360 being where the feedback is asked

from people that you work with, both,

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um, people that you report to, your

peers, and people who report to you

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. One of the advantages of Strengthscope

and why I particularly like it is that

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it's a little bit more work oriented.

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Strengthscope is also the only

commercial strengths assessment

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tool that's registered with the

British Psychological Society.

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Whatever tool you use though, you'll

find that you'll gain some insights and

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they'll help you to understand what your

strengths might be, and also provide

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pointers for you to reflect on about

how you might make better use of those

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strengths once you have that awareness.

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So have fun exploring what might be

your strengths as your superpowers.

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Knowing that and making better use

of it can make all the difference.

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You can find the summary notes, a

transcript and related links for this

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podcast on www.changingacademiclife.com.

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You can also subscribe to Changing

Academic Life on iTunes, Spotify.

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And I'm really hoping that we can

widen the conversation about how

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we can do academia differently.

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: 00:22:29

And you can contribute to this by rating

the podcast and also giving feedback.

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: 00:22:33

And if something connected with

you, please consider sharing this

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podcast with your colleagues.

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Together we can make change happen.